Japanese director Sabu's latest film is another demanding, unique drama whose plot twists cry out: "Didn't see that one coming!" Which begs the question, Why aren't more of this man's films available outside Japan and the film festival circuit?
Shuji's childhood home is part of a seaside village until developers create a new community by using landfill. Thereafter, the village is known as Shore, while the former landfill is christened Offshore. Rivalries develop. One day Shuji's bicycle breaks down and a tough but surprisingly kind yakuza gives him a lift. The ride is eye-opening, thanks to an amorous exchange between the yakuza and his girlfriend.
Years pass and Shuji enters his teens. He develops a crush on fellow classmate Eri, who likes to run and attend church. To gain her attention, Shuji takes up running and visits Eri's church with his brother Shuichi. The three sit in the otherwise empty church one night and listen to Father Yuichi preach before Shuichi begins mocking the priest -- rumor has it that Yuichi murdered a man in his youth -- and drags Shuji away.
Shuji begins visiting the church more often, to Shuichi's self-righteous disgust. A new set of real-estate developers arrive, the kind with black hats and firm hands, and local residents are driven to sell out to make way for a resort. Father Yuichi is a holdout, which doesn't bode well for his future. To further muddy the waters, Eri takes a fateful run along the same narrow road where a truck carrying huge rocks is having trouble balancing its load.
THE BLESSING BELL, which I liked very much when I saw it at AFI FEST 2003, was my only previous exposure to Sabu, so I can't rightly describe how DEAD RUN fits into his oeuvre and whether it develops his thematic obsessions in new and interesting ways (readers are encouraged to add information in the "Comments" section). But there's no doubt that Sabu is a gifted filmmaker with a unique vision.
THE BLESSING BELL featured a man traveling through a huge variety of scenarios, basically from screen left to screen right. Then he returns to whence he came, moving back through the same locations from screen right to screen left. With DEAD RUN, the approach is to establish exquisite, basically stable frames through which we can view the characters and locations. The camera is always in the precisely correct position, and the action, even when it's simply snatches of dialogue, always commands attention.
Unhappily, the final third of the film doesn't quite satisfy. The characters become more perverse and unlikable, almost without reason, as though Sabu were rubbing the nose of the audience in unpleasantness just to prove he can do it. Nothing adds up, either plot or character-wise, even though key moments from Shuji’s childhood are tied in to the troubles he experiences years later. Nonetheless, the final images are so powerful that they nearly erase the problematic passages from memory.
Even though DEAD RUN left a a bit of a bad taste in my mouth, it still made me admire Sabu's artistic abilities. The beauty of the thing is one attraction. The actions of all the characters ring true for much of the running time. And any film that can provoke a strong reaction deserves as wide an audience as possible.
You can read the first ScreenAnarchy post about DEAD RUN here, where the English-language title is listed as RUNNING; there are also links to Japanese news items there. IMDB doesn't have an entry for it yet.
Official Film Web Site. (Japanese-language; I couldn't find a trailer, but if you click on "About the Movie" you'll hear a lovely piece of music from the soundtrack and have access to much more information. Looks like it will open in Japan in December.)
Horizon Entertainment Web Site. (English-language; Horizon is involved in development, production, distribution, and foreign sales; still no trailer, though.)